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Meet John

John

John Woodruff

Founder and Realtor®

Get to Know Me

With over 35 years of experience in San Francisco real estate, John is an expert negotiator with a deep knowledge of the marketplace, neighborhoods, and homes. This knowledge, along with his connections and the respect of his colleagues in the business allows him to easily navigate every kind of market, successfully serving his clients, which include first-time home buyers venture capital executives, and even the occasional rock star.
 
Originally from the East Coast, John moved out to California to attend Claremont McKenna College. He quickly fell in love with Northern California and San Francisco and has lived here since 1980. Coming from a family that for over six generations had either been selling or building real estate, starting in the business came naturally to him. In 1993, after working for five years with his father at Merrill Lynch Real Estate, John migrated to Hill & Co., a prestigious luxury real estate brokerage, where he spent the next 25 years of his career as one of the firm’s top-producing agents.
 
In 2018, John decided he wanted to optimize his ability to help his clients, thus his firm Aethos Real Estate was created in partnership with the powerful real estate technology firm, Side. By leveraging Side’s pioneering and innovative approach to the real estate industry and their exceptional technology-driven marketing, John is able to focus directly on his clients and their needs, as well as foster relationships within the community and across the country. This allows Aethos’ clients the advantage of an experienced, boutique brokerage providing unrivaled technology-driven services and marketing sophistication. Aethos has consistently been recognized every year by Real Trends as being in the top 1.5% of real estate professionals in the country.
 
John chose the name Aethos because throughout his career as a Realtor® he has been guided by his ethics: Respect, Integrity, Accountability, and Empathy. Aethos is the greek spelling of ethos - the characteristic spirit of a culture or community as defined by its actions and aspirations. He is known for making the process of buying or selling a property as pleasant and stress-free as possible. He does this with humor, enthusiasm, and dedication to his client’s well-being.
 
Prioritizing a work/life balance, John is able to carve out plenty of time to spend with his lovely wife and three children. Additionally, he volunteers at their schools, travels, performs in local theater, and teaches historical fencing.
Siamak A.
Shane
Dave & Lily
Sarah
Jenny
Isaac & Nobl
Sam & Liz
Chuck F.
Andy
Christian & Ricarda
John
Snehi
Laird C.
Vanessa
Kelley G.
Andrew
Nicole
Ajay
Zachary
Guillaume
Bill B.
Frances
Vijay S.
WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We have worked with John and Aethos Real Estate for over 25 years, in at least 10 projects, for approximately 20 residential and live-work transactions. Over the course of our collaboration, we enjoyed and benefited from his maturity, diligence, discipline, ethics, market knowledge, team spirit, and ‘can-do’ attitude. We would use them again and recommend them to anyone looking for a successful and head...

— Siamak A.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John recently helped us close on an extremely competitive home in San Francisco. It was our second time working with John to purchase a home.He is thoughtful, patient, funny, and has a deep knowledge of the San Francisco real estate market regardless of what neighborhood you are looking in.John is our go-to referral for friends looking as working with him will truly give you an edge in your real estate h...

— Shane

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We have done 3 transactions with John over the years. Most recently, he helped us sell our home AND subsequently purchase our new place. He was thorough and walked us through every step of the way. It always felt like he was on our side and had our best interests at heart. John looked out for us and made sure the process went as smoothly as possible.

— Dave & Lily

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Over the last few years, John has helped my husband and me buy and sell several properties in the Bay Area. He’s always available, returns phone calls fast, is super responsive. Besides that, he’s a lovable guy who’s funny and knowledgeable. I would put him in the “best” category. All of this is huge for me to say, because generally speaking, I don’t like Realtors®. There are too many slimy and aggressiv...

— Sarah

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

As first time home buyers in SF’s overwhelming and intimidating market, we were tremendously grateful for John’s expertise and support. Throughout the entire process, John was communicative and made himself available to answer all our questions. John is exuberant, confident and a true expert in his field. Our first and only offer was accepted without counter and we moved into our dream home less than a m...

— Jenny

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John is an exceptional Realtor®. Even though it took my wife and me over two years to find our perfect home, John was with us every step of the way. When we found our dream property John sprang into action, using his impressive negotiating skills and decades of expertise to get us an excellent deal (under asking price in San Francisco? A miracle!). Since we bought our house we have referred him to a numb...

— Isaac & Nobl

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We approached John with the idea of buying a house in San Francisco in early 2018. We had some specific ideas about what we wanted and where we wanted to buy. However, we were entirely unfamiliar with how the buying market in San Francisco worked. John was great at answering every question we had about real estate transactions, what the state of the market in SF was, and what we should expect from the of...

— Sam & Liz

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John has a tremendous command for the SF Real estate market, and strategies to sell and purchase. I’ve bought and sold houses with him. Anyone looking to close a great result in a real estate transaction, I’d highly recommend engaging John for such services.

— Chuck F.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We recently purchased a home in San Francisco and were incredibly lucky to have been recommended to work with John by a colleague. John was patient with us every step of the way, regardless of our silly questions and general lack of knowledge about how the home buying process works. He was able to deftly navigate the competing home priorities of my wife and I without taking sides, and ultimately helped u...

— Andy

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John has made our search and buying process a very pleasant experience. He understands the specifics of the market, is very well connected, super responsive and goal oriented. Great job in finding us a good home!

— Christian & Ricarda

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John helped us sell our condo in San Francisco. He had a great sense of the market, was well-connected with the numerous agents / vendors / inspectors / etc. required to get through the sales process, and had all the answers to our questions. Throughout the process, John made us feel confident that he was putting our needs and interests first. And most importantly, he got the deal done quickly and smooth...

— John

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John’s knowledge of the Bay Area real estate market is unparalleled. He always gave us his honest opinion on the different places we looked at and pointed out both the good and bad with each place. We had heard horror stories of friends that had put in 10-20, even more, offers before finding a place. We were lucky to have John on our side, he read the market well and the first offer we put in was accepte...

— Snehi

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John is the perfect Realtor®. He listens, always answers phone calls, responds to queries with cheerful readiness, and is an all around good guy. He and his business partner, Marcus, facilitated the purchase of a property for us in San Francisco, and made it very easy. I recommend him without reservation.

— Laird C.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Buying my new apartment would not have happened without John; he is very proactive in getting things done and always available to answer any questions. I will definitely refer all my friends and family to him when buying property in the future!

— Vanessa

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I really enjoyed working with John on the sale of my condo. Being my first sale, I was a bit clueless about the sellers end of the transaction. John diligently walked me through the process and explained things every step of the way. Not only was he professional, responsive, and knowledgeable, he was pleasant to talk with and fun to be around. I can’t speak highly enough about my experience working with ...

— Kelley G.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John helped me and my wife find our perfect house in 2012. He patiently waited through our “should we rent/should we buy” phase, and was there for us every step of the way. We liked him so much, and have such a good experience with him, that we still keep in contact socially 4 years later, and we have referred friends and family to him, all of whom rave about him. He is not only a great human being, but ...

— Andrew

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

I have worked with John on 3 real estate transactions over the past 13 years, 2 purchases and 1 sale. He has always made the process very easy, stress-free, and enjoyable too. He’s a great guy and I would always trust him with my San Francisco real estate needs.

— Nicole

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

Working with John was a true pleasure! He helped us buy a home in an extremely competitive situation, and it was clear that his relationships within the real estate community made a tremendous difference in our success. Most importantly, he was not only a pleasure to work with, but also a truly honest partner in the process! As someone who’s bought multiple properties and been involved in both residentia...

— Ajay

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John was great to work with. Over several months, my wife and I looked at dozens of houses with John’s help. We were not easy clients as we couldn’t decide what we were looking for exactly! John was always patient and helpful though. John clearly had incredibly deep relationships in the SF real estate community and helped us put in several competitive offers, the last of which we won. John was also gener...

— Zachary

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We worked with John in 2015 and after 8 months in a very competitive market, he helped us close on our favorite house. He has a great knowledge of San Francisco and helped us discover some great neighborhoods for our family. He was patient, available (via email, text, in person, etc.), fun to work with, not pushy, and really keen to help us find what we wanted. We recommend him if you are looking for a p...

— Guillaume

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John is ethical, moral and a breath of fresh air in a highly competitive industry. He is honest, knowledgeable and works his butt off for you. Highly recommend.

— Bill B.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

John helped us through multiple potential minefields in the purchase of our first home in San Francisco and later in its sale. We couldn’t ask for a better team in these complex and pivotal — and most personal — decision processes. We are grateful for the day my husband wandered into a cafe and happened to meet John early in our SF sojourn.

— Frances

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

We just wanted to express our appreciation for the good work of John in the successful sale of our home in South Beach. What we truly appreciated was that they guided us through the process step by step, made themselves available for questions and within a week of aggressive marketing managed to sell our home in a declining market.

— Vijay S.

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Contact Details

Aethos Real Estate

(415) 999-9827

[email protected]



580 4th Street

San Francisco, CA 94107